Thomas Lowndes Snead

Background

Thomas was born on January 10, 1828, in Henrico County, Virginia, United States. He was the son of Jesse and Jane Jane Jude Johnson Snead, the daughter of Mary Henley and Benjamin Johnson.

Education

Thomas graduated from Richmond College (now University of Richmond) in 1846, then he attended the University of Virginia, where he studied law from 1846 to 1848.

Career

Although admitted to the bar of Virginia in 1850, Snead chose St. Louis, Missouri, for his future home. There he practiced law and became interested in newspaper work. He was on the staff of the Bulletin during 1860 and 1861.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, he set aside editorial and legal work to become aide-de-camp to Governor Claiborne F. Jackson. Acting as the governor's secretary, he attended the Planters' Hotel conference in June 1861, the last futile attempt of Missourians for peace. Immediately thereafter he became acting adjutant-general, with the rank of colonel, of the Missouri state guard and took part in the battles of Booneville, Carthage, Wilson's Creek, and Lexington. In 1862 he became assistant adjutant-general of the Confederate army, serving with the rank of major, chief of staff to General Sterling Price in the southwest.

In 1864 he was elected representative from Missouri to the Second Confederate Congress and resigned his post in the army. He was a member of the committees on foreign affairs and on impressments and also of a special committee on increasing the military force.

After the war, on account of the severe test oath of Missouri's radical Reconstruction, Thomas Snead made New York City his third and last home. In 1865 he became the managing editor of the New York Daily News. The following year he was admitted to the bar and devoted his time to the law and to writing. He wrote "The First Year of the War," "With Price East of the Mississippi," and "Conquest of Arkansas" about Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.

Achievements

• Thomas Lowndes Snead acted as one of Missouri's two commissioners in a military convention with the Confederate States, which was signed in 1861. He participated in the Battles of Boonville, Carthage, Wilson's Creek, and Lexington with promotion to the rank of major. His best-known work is a detailed history of the war entitled "The Fight for Missouri."

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Fight for Missouri, from the Election of Lincoln to the Death of Lyon 1886

Politics

Snead was a Davis administration supporter.

Membership

Snead was a member of the Union Club of New York and was a charter member of the New York Southern Society.

Personality

Snead possessed a host of friends who were attracted by his buoyant optimism and sunny disposition.

Connections

Snead had a son and a daughter by his November 24, 1852, marriage to Harriet Vairin Reel.

Father:

Jesse Snead

1794-1855

Mother:

Jane Jude Johnson Snead

1801-1856

Sister:

Anna Maria Snead Binford

1820-1855

Sister:

Jesse Lilbourn Snead

1825-1890

Brother:

Quintus A. Snead

1829-1870

Sister:

Mary Ella Snead Bozeman

1836-1872

Brother:

Gary Winn Snead

1839-1842

Sister:

Jennie J. Snead Watson

1842-1930

Wife:

Harriet Vairin Reel Snead

1833-1906

Son:

Walker Sneed

unknown-1855

colleague:

Claiborne F. Jackson

References

• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1997